Bitly is a service that shortens links so they can be shared and tracked on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Recently, Bitly mined its data to determine which days and times are best to share content so they will go viral.

The service looked at posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. All times are Eastern.

The best time to post to Twitter is in the afternoon, early in the week—from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, according to Bitly. Avoid posting after 8 p.m. and, on Fridays, after 3 p.m.

“As far as being a gateway to drive traffic to your content, it appears that Twitter doesn’t work on weekends,” reports Bitly.

The peak traffic times, it adds, are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

Avoid posting to Facebook after 8 p.m. and before 8 a.m., and on the weekends. Your posts are less likely to gain traction, according to Bitly.

“Links posted from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. result in the highest average click throughs,” Bitly reports. “The peak time of the week was on Wednesday at 3 p.m.”

The report continues:

“Facebook traffic peaks mid-week, 1 to 3 p.m. While traffic starts to increase around 9 a.m., one would be wise to wait to post until 11 a.m. Traffic from Facebook fades after 4 p.m. Despite similar traffic counts at 8 p.m. and 7 p.m., posting at 7 p.m. will result in more clicks on average than posting at 8 p.m.”

Finally, Tumblr is the odd man (or woman) out. Don’t bother posting until after 4 pm, with the best times being from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays. Bitly also advocates updating your Tumblr on a Friday night.
.